Phife Dawg’s 50 Best Opening Lines on A Tribe Called Quest Verses

The hip-hop legend from the boulevard of Linden always knew how to make an entrance

Few MCs in the history of hip-hop took less time to make an impression than the man born Malik Taylor. Whether you first heard him promising to never half-step as a guest rapper on De La Soul’s “Buddy” remix in 1989, or interrupting A Tribe Called Quest leader Q-Tip’s dominance of the group’s first album with his layers-flow on “Can I Kick It?” in ’90, or dissing the country’s most badass athlete on “Scenario” in ’91, it never took more than a line for the Phife Dawg to be totally unforgettable.

To pay tribute to one of our favorite rappers of the ’90s after his tragic and entirely premature death at age 45 yesterday, we’ve rounded up our 50 favorite verse-openers from Phife’s time in the Tribe. (Sorry, the critical re-evaluation of 2000 solo album Ventilation: Da LP will have to wait for another day.) Guest verses were acceptable as long as Tip and/or the rest of Tribe were also featured on said track, and multiple Phife lyrics from the same song were considered when he had more than one verse-opener worthy of inclusion. Read on below, and raise a Dr. Pepper to the 5’0″ assassin’s 50 best.

50. “Now drop the beat, for the Phifer from A Tribe Called Quest / When I see Buddy, I will never half step” (De La Soul “Buddy” Remix, 12-inch single, 1989)

49. “See, I’m not the one to be taken advantage of / And if you really think about it, I got nothin’ but love” (“Common Ground (Get It Going On),”The Love Movement, 1998)